Information on earthquake relief efforts by AQSIQ

May, 29, 2008

With the earthquake in the Wenchuan county of Sichuan Province, closely following the requirements and deployment of the CPC central committee, the State Council, and the Earthquake Relief Headquarters, AQSIQ immediately started the emergency response system and established the earthquake relief guiding group headed by Minister Li Changjiang. Mobilizing and assembling highly qualified and experienced personnel from the inspection and quarantine system across the country, we formed technical service teams in three areas, i.e. health quarantine service team, test and inspection service team, and special equipment service team. The technical service teams urgently headed toward the worst-stricken areas of Sichuan province from different parts of China , and spared no efforts for the earthquake relief work. Local inspection and quarantine authorities handled the special cases with special measures, providing around-the-clock service to ensure the rapid release of foreign aid materials and personnel.

Currently, some of the above-mentioned work is still underway, while some already concluded the work for the present stage.

Test and inspection technical service

AQSIQ formed 8 technical service teams comprising of 109 personnel from Quality and Technical Supervision Bureaus in Chongqing , Guangdong , Zhejiang , Jiangsu , Heilongjiang and Henan , and from the China Academy of Inspection and Quarantine. The teams, carrying mobile and portable equipments for the inspection of food, building materials and special equipment, went to the earthquake-ravaged areas including Mianyang, Deyang, Guangyuan, Meishan and Dujiangyan, to conduct free inspection services for food products, bottled waters and building materials. By 12 o'clock today, we've checked 941 food processing plants, 151 water samples, and 119 building materials manufacturing plants. We've checked the measurement instruments for 346 enterprises and public institutions. We conducted sampling inspection on 34 drinking water supply points, and culling inspection on other minor drinking water supply points, so as to ensure the drinking water hygiene and safety for the settlement points.

Health Quarantine

193 health quarantine staff from Jiangsu CIQ, Shenzhen CIQ, Xiamen CIQ, Ningbo CIQ, Tianjin CIQ, Liaoning CIQ, Shandong CIQ, Guangdong CIQ and Chongqing CIQ were transferred by AQSIQ to set up 19 service groups which conduct health quarantine respectively in Mianyang city, Beichuan county, Pingwu county, An county, and Dujiangyan city. By 12 a.m. this morning, the personnel have been dispatched by 1496 person-times; the total areas for sterilization and disinfection is 28.01 million square meters; 37,000 kilograms of medicine have been used. In the meanwhile, 100,000 emergency medical kits and 10,000 culicifuges whose production was entrusted by AQSIQ have been transported to the earthquake-hit areas and dispatched to the earthquake victims and the rescuers.

Special Equipment

Since May 20, we have organized 956 special-equipment inspectors and supervisors from Quality and Technology Supervision Bureaus in 18 provinces (municipalities) and 1926 engineers from 84 special-equipment enterprises around the country to set up 19 service groups. These groups are dispatched to 6 harder-hit areas such as Chengdu, Deyang, Mianyang, Guangyuan, Ya'an and Aba to check and repair the special equipments in an all-round way in order to avoid the secondary disaster caused by special-equipment safety accidents. In these 6 harder-hit areas, there are totally 49,000 special equipments. The test and inspection show that 20918 special equipments have been damaged, including 20041 elevators, 101 medical oxygen chambers, 102 boilers, 26 pressure vessels, 629 hoisting machineries, 14 large-scale amusement facilities, and 5 passenger ropeways. By the afternoon of May 27, the urgent inspection and repairing for the 20918 damaged special equipments in the harder-hit areas of Sichuan province have all been completed. The safe use of elevators and other special equipments provides great convenience to 4.1 million people in the earthquake-hit areas. Timely repairing of medical oxygen chambers helps to give timely treatment to 35,000 wounded persons.

Inspection and Release at Ports

The local inspection and quarantine branches adhere to the principle of “Special matter, special handling” and stick to the post 24 hours. According to the requirements of “Two rapidness and one exemption”, which means rapid test, rapid release, and the exemption of charges for the inspection and quarantine of entering donated goods, we aim to ensure that the foreign donated goods and materials will be inspected and rescuers will be quarantined right upon their arrival at ports. At present, the donated goods and materials as well as rescuers are from more than 40 countries and regions including Russia , Japan , the United States , Hongkong SAR, Taiwan and Singapore . Their 14 entry ports include Beijing , Chengdu , Chongqing , Shanghai , Shenzhen, Zhuhai , Guangdong , Lanzhou and Urumchi. By this morning, these ports have rapidly inspected and released 402 batches of internationally donated goods and 13 rescuer teams.

AQSIQ has also rapidly issued a series of special policies to support the reconstruction and production resuming in earthquake-hit areas. We provide those disaster-damaged enterprises and the enterprises who supply goods and materials for earthquake relief with “Green channel for production license”. This means, their application will be accepted preferentially; their qualification will be examined preferentially; their license will be issued preferentially; the charges for examination and inspection will be exempted. We will offer our special support to the enterprises in the disaster areas who apply for China Top Brand and National Inspection Exemption Product. We have requested inspection and quarantine departments at various levels to launch the fight against fake and counterfeiting goods by focusing on disaster-relief foodstuff and construction materials. The utmost efforts will be devoted to the campaign of “5 Examination and 5 Strike” to severely punish the quality-related illegal activities of accumulating wealth by national calamity.

Currently, the earthquake rescue and relief work is still at its critical period. The task is heavy and arduous. Earthquake rescue and relief is the top priority for the whole country. It is also the bounden duty of AQSIQ system. For our next step, according to the requirements and assignment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, we will mainly focus our efforts on the following aspects:

First, continue to strengthen technical service for the earthquake-stricken area. At present, the health quarantine service teams and the test and inspection service teams are continuing the relief efforts in the earthquake-stricken area, and the inspection and quarantine system will provide logistics support and organize back-up personnel for timely replacement. The special equipment technical service teams will timely go to the area when needed during the production resumption. Besides, we set up two hotlines for the special equipment emergencies, i.e. 010-59068651 and 028-86607629. Should any hidden troubles or emergencies of special equipment occur in the earthquake-stricken area, people can dial the hotline and our technical personnel will go to the spot for repair in a timely manner.

Second, conduct strict quality control on materials needed for the rebuilding of the earthquake-stricken area. Intensify the supervisory examination of products including building materials, agricultural production materials, and agricultural equipments, to ensure product quality and safety for various materials. Strictly strike those illegal and fraud activities, and the production and distribution of counterfeited food products. We'll continue to give rapid examination and release of foreign aid materials and personnel, to exercise “two rapids and one exemption”, to provide 24-hours inspection service.

Third, strengthen support for the enterprises in the earthquake-stricken area. Relying on the technical capacities of the inspection and quarantine systems, we'll help the enterprise to resume production as soon as possible and provide all possible support. We'll organize and mobilize the enterprises and institutions of our system to provide “one to one” or “several to one” support, to provide necessary techniques, equipments, capital and personnel support, so as to facilitate the resumption of normal production and life of the earthquake-stricken area.